Gaius's speech in Praetorium vs Heavensward

[Cilia]

To my memory the story threads weren't being laid down until the very end of 2.3 - when we got our first whiff of Lady Iceheart (Ysayle) stealing a crystal shipment and (I believe) the stinger showing Lahabrea influencing Archbishop Thordan in some manner. You gotta remember 1.X bombed due for a multitude of reasons and A Realm Reborn was a big risk on SE's part - kind of why 2.1 - 2.3 is pretty much just filler, fighting monsters of the week (Moggle Mog, Leviathan, and Ramuh) with a political intrigue story that is given an unsatisfying conclusion halfway through Heavensward after a series of narrative disruptions. Until Yoshi-P proved XIV could be successful, the suits didn't want to invest too much in it.

I don't feel like arguing over Gaius' philosophy, and given the Twelve have been proven to exist in some capacity and not as primals...

[Cleretic]

To my memory the story threads weren't being laid down until the very end of 2.3 - when we got our first whiff of Lady Iceheart (Ysayle) stealing a crystal shipment and (I believe) the stinger showing Lahabrea influencing Archbishop Thordan in some manner. You gotta remember 1.X bombed due for a multitude of reasons and A Realm Reborn was a big risk on SE's part - kind of why 2.1 - 2.3 is pretty much just filler, fighting monsters of the week (Moggle Mog, Leviathan, and Ramuh) with a political intrigue story that is given an unsatisfying conclusion halfway through Heavensward after a series of narrative disruptions. Until Yoshi-P proved XIV could be successful, the suits didn't want to invest too much in it.

This is broadly true, but Ishgard did seem to be planned as the next stop (or at least an upcoming stop) even back in 1.0; in the ARR stretch they didn't know if there would be anything more than ARR, yes, but Ishgard seemed to pretty much always be the first destination for further content all the way up until we actually went to Ishgard. With 30-50 Dragoon telling the story of the Dragonsong War pretty much exactly as we'd hear it in Heavensward--albeit missing a few of the secret details--it makes sense that they probably had the broad strokes of Heavensward laid out, especially since it's an extension of, as I mentioned, the overall story of the dangers of religious zealotry they were big on at the time.

Gaius' speech fitting Thordan and company probably wasn't unintended, but it was probably less 'foreshadowing of the thing we're gonna do' and more just that both Gaius and Thordan were elements of the same story with the same overarching themes, so of course he'd be able to make comments that apply.

[Aneshda]

I don't feel like arguing over Gaius' philosophy, and given the Twelve have been proven to exist in some capacity and not as primals...

I have this feeling that the 12 are nothing more as a creation Hydaelyn's, a sentimental moment of her, because the original 12 got wasted away through her Summoning. So to be not all alone in the 7 Heavens, she created those 12.